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Using Icon Sets in Microsoft Excel 2007

One of the new features in the latest (2007 and 2010) versions of Microsoft
Excel is the opportunity to add graphics to cells by applying conditional
formatting.

Our starting point will be a short list of
numbers, an extract of which is shown below:

'Traditional' conditional formatting would
be to apply
a red, yellow or green fill to the background of
the cells. However, we can now use:

Icon Sets

As with any formatting,
select all the cells
that you want to include within
the conditional formatting rule.
Then, on the Home
tab, click on
Conditional Formatting,
hover over Icon Sets
and pick a style:

Here I have picked the '3 Traffic Lights (Rimmed)' style

This will create a new rule in which the top 33% (based on the quantity of cells
you have selected) have the green icon, the middle third the yellow, and the
bottom third the red icon.

Manage Rules...

If this is the analysis you were wanting, then great! If, however, you wanted
the traffic lights to change colour at preset thresholds, then let's have a look
at how to fine-tune this rule:

Make sure you've still got all the affected cells selected

Click on Conditional Formatting ->
Manage Rules...

Double click on your Icon Sets rule, and
make the changes below:

I'll complete this by entering 10 as my 'yellow' threshold
value

Once you have made the changes, click on OK on
the Edit Rule... dialog box, then click OK
or Apply on the Conditional Formatting
dialog box and your edited rule should now be in place!